Monday, June 13, 2011

910. I didn't really have much to say about this one, because it just holds absolutely no interest for me. But looking back, there are three distinct "jokes" here, as is Randy's tradition--throw a bunch out there and see what sticks. Joke the first: "lol I spend a lot of time thinking about server names." GOOMH-bait. Joke the second: "lol I didn't spend much time choosing a name for my hot porn star daughter." This builds on the first, core joke, and you could argue that it's part of the same joke--but this one isn't GOOMH-bait, it just serves to underscore the first one. And finally, joke the third: "lol drugs."

I give Randy credit that these jokes are actually vaguely related, but this just means he doesn't lose quite so many points for not just picking one joke and sticking to it.

911. The Magic School Bus was a show about learning through empirical observation rather than by simply reading and regurgitating information that is the product of other people's observations. Randy's joke is, apparently, "what if instead of going and observing things they just looked things up instead? wouldn't that be boring?" Or perhaps this is an earnest paean to Wikipedia. "Wikipedia is just as exciting as the Magic School Bus. I would rather sit on my ass and type random words into the little search box than go on adventures."

I think that Randy is kidding on the square here: of course it's boring, but at the same time, this is what Randy is reduced to. He sits and idly consumes, because his job is to sit at his computer and read Wikipedia until he comes up with a way to make one of the articles into a comic. It's reached the point now that he no longer even tries to hide it: lately he's done nothing but praise Wikipedia and all of its greatness.

I liked the alt text for this one though. As many people observed, the structure of this one is quite sound--it has a setup, some beats, and a punchline. The problem is there is no humor to be found anywhere. If there were the alt text would be particularly well done--but alas, the joke is about as humorless as it's possible for something to be.

No, everyone knows the anonymouses who insult Rob, and in fact all the anonymouses, are Rob himself. So is everyone with an account. The only real people who are the XKCD fans who come here and tell us we have no lives.

@K.:*:.: I suspect you made your delightful moniker specifically to pick random fights with internet-borne Corvids who type like 12-year old girls! That's racist against tweens and birds, and I demand restitution!

Re K.'s actual content: Well, this is what happens when an otherwise-unemployed geek makes a living off webcomics. Sure, he could be spending his 23 free hours a day exploring the world as he continuously tries to urge his followers to do, but instead he stays in front of a computer all day, learning about them on Wikipedia.

If anything, #911 is a cry for help, a nostalgic scream about how he's lost his thrill for the magic of the world, and Wikipedia is the monster to blame. As Wikipedia devours his world day by day, topic by topic, the only constant that remains in this paltry existence is the Destroyer itself, so what else can he do but craft idols in Its name, and worship It as the God of his shrinking world.

Raven: that explanation of Radall's relationship with Wikipedia was nothing short of poetic beauty. Also I thought that despite the lack of actual humor, the Magic School Bus comic was better than most of his other ones just because of the inclusion of pretty colors.

Who is using my name? My letter is a reference to Franz Kafka's protagonist in The Trial, it is not some nomer or misnomer to be BANDIED ABOUT.

Here's an idea, maybe Randy is a really great friend i.e. he's caring, he's very witty and he's always got a kind word and time for anyone. This would explain why the actually good webcomic authors (Read as: people I like) seem to love him. I honestly don't see any other reason for it.

I hated the Magic School Bus, because it outright taught kids things that were wrong, then tried to cover its ass with those lame epilogue "yeah, we know that's not how science actually works, but we had to dumb it down for the anklebiters." Fill their heads with garbage and then insult them. Why was this show popular again?

I'm in favour of a good eugenics programme if it means culling the likes of Terry Pratchett. Unfortunately for him, to die with dignity would have been to commit hara kiri the day after his first Discworld novel was published.

Dearest k, lowercase and unpunctuated: You are mistaking "K." [uppercase punctuated] for yourself. To prove yourself the worthier bearer of that letter I'm afraid you'll have to draw something better than K.'s reply on this blog post. If you can only draw something better than the original, you get to be a Ravenzomg for a day or something? Is that how this works?

Ravenzomg, I am doing nothing of the sort, I am however fearful that others will make this mistake, similar as it is to my own moniker. I don't need an apologist for SUBNORMALITY weakening my brand amongst the very demographic I am reaching out to.

Your request seems bizaare, but if it secures my letter...http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lmtkc8wFJQ1qbo3w2o1_500.png

1) Technology meets practicality.this is the emergency override, you have to go through the info page to use it, hope you're not in a hurry huhuhuhuhuhuhuh

2) Stupid homonym joke.manual, adj. Operated by means of the hands (of a machine, device etc.).manual, n. A booklet that instructs on the usage of a particular machine.as in LOL it's a gnu info page, not a man page, so it's not MANUAL override it's GNU INFO override. i'll be here all night

Also this pretty much exactly the same joke as #293, except for the fact that he decided to use "GNU Info page" instead of "man page" this time, which doesn't seem to add anything to the joke and in fact threw me off because I've never even used GNU.

What the hell is this?

Welcome. This is a website called XKCD SUCKS which is about the webcomic xkcd and why we think it sucks. My name is Carl and I used to write about it all the time, then I stopped because I went insane, and now other people write about it all the time. I forget their names. The posts still seem to be coming regularly, but many of the structural elements - like all the stuff in this lefthand pane - are a bit outdated. What can I say? Insane, etc.

I started this site because it had been clear to me for a while that xkcd is no longer a great webcomic (though it once was). Alas, many of its fans are too caught up in the faux-nerd culture that xkcd is a part of, and can't bring themselves to admit that the comic, at this point, is terrible. While I still like a new comic on occasion, I feel that more and more of them need the Iron Finger of Mockery knowingly pointed at them. This used to be called "XKCD: Overrated", but then it fell from just being overrated to being just horrible. Thus, xkcd sucks.

Here is a comic about me that Ann made. It is my favorite thing in the world.

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